Owen William’s “Kick-Ass 2” Is a Bad-Taste Manifesto That Doesn’t Work

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Owen Williams’ treatment of Kick-Ass 2, “Kick-Ass 2” functions easier as a character study and adaptation critique than a review of a film. Given the mandatory format of Plot-Review-Verdict, of course there is a mention of what occasionally happens in the movie, but the lack of any connection between the events puts the depth of the review into the characters.

That would be acceptable if Williams offered an opinion on them, rather than *meta-spoiler alert* how the film “sidesteps… the bad taste” of the author, or the fact that it is still faithful to the source material. That isn’t a perspective towards the film at all, but rather a reassurance to everyone who, comic book in hand, compares frames and speech bubbles to the screen.

Williams tries to offer a sample towards the humor or reflect the film in his writing, perhaps most specifically in the subtitle (“Okay you c@&!s… let’s see what you can do now!”), but he risks alienating and offending his audience, especially with the turbulence of his animated writing.

His character analysis fails as it introduces the ensemble. Any lucidity gets chucked out the window for the ironic sake of stuffing as much in 400 words as possible. Williams should reconsider why movie critics write and are read, and then try again.